Rick Save

Rick Save

Session save point. Captures the current warm thread to docs/rick/<folder>/saves/<timestamp>.md so a future Claude session can pick up exactly where this one left off via /rick-respawn. <folder> is the current branch name (e.g. 48-rotate-share-token), or a one-word slug fallback when not on a feature branch.

Saves are append-only. Each session adds a new timestamped file under the feature's saves/ directory. Reviewing the directory shows the full timeline for that feature.

Tighter focus than a generic handoff: the next agent gets what to do right now, not a narrative summary of the whole session.

Protocol

1. Gather context (parallel, mandatory)

Run all of these. Read actual output, do not assume.

• git status
• git branch --show-current
• git log -5 --oneline
• git diff --stat $(git merge-base HEAD main 2>/dev/null)..HEAD 2>/dev/null || git diff --stat HEAD~5..HEAD 2>/dev/null
• Check docs/rick/<folder>/saves/ exists. If not, create it. If docs/rick/README.md is missing, copy README-TEMPLATE.md to it verbatim.

If git commands fail, note under What NOT to do (or skip the affected sections and flag the gap).

2. Pick the folder

The folder ties this save to the plan, review, and recap for the same feature.

Resolution order, use the first that produces a value:

1. Branch name. git branch --show-current. If non-empty and not in {main, master, develop}, sanitize / and spaces to -. That is the folder. Example: 48-rotate-share-token stays as-is.
2. Slug override. If on main/develop/detached HEAD and the first whitespace-delimited word of $ARGUMENTS matches ^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*$ and is not in the banlist, use it as the folder. Strip it from $ARGUMENTS before using the rest as focus.
3. Derived slug. Pick a one-word slug from session context. Prefer the domain (auth, billing, onboarding, tooling, migration) over the activity (review, fix, debug).

Slug rules (paths 2 and 3 only): lowercase, alphanumeric plus hyphen, no spaces, no underscores. Single word strongly preferred. Hyphenated allowed when one word genuinely cannot disambiguate (user-import, legacy-migration). Max 20 characters.

Banlist (slug paths only): stuff, session, work, code, dev, misc, general, task, thing, update, changes, wip, rick, save. If you almost picked one, the slug is too vague. Pick again.

3. Compute filename

• Timestamp: date +%Y-%m-%d_%H%M
• Path: docs/rick/<folder>/saves/<timestamp>.md

4. Write the save

Second person, addressed to the next Claude. Direct and dense. No fluff, no pleasantries. 400 word soft cap.

Sections in this order:

• Read first. One or two sentences. Point at any prior save files in docs/rick/<folder>/saves/ (recent timestamps) and the canonical plan at docs/rick/<folder>/plan/current.md that cover earlier context. Cite their paths. Do not duplicate their content.
• Current state. Branch, HEAD commit (short SHA), working tree status (clean / staged / dirty paths), PR number and state if applicable. Cite exact SHAs.
• What just happened. Bullet list. Deltas since the last referenced save (or this session, if this is the first save for the folder). Cite commit hashes for anything that landed.
• Open threads. Priority-ordered. Top one is the explicit next move. Each item: what it is, what blocks it, where it lives (file path with line numbers, PR number, branch). The next agent picks the top one and runs.
• Lessons surfaced. Non-obvious things learned this segment that aren't already in CLAUDE.md / CLAUDE.local.md. Skip the section if there are none.
• Suggested skills. One line per skill, why it fits the open work. Reference by skill name, not invocation syntax. Skip if nothing fits.
• What NOT to do. Pitfalls hit, settled decisions not to relitigate, destructive actions to avoid, tools that misbehaved. Skip if empty.

End the file with this exact line on its own:

You are Rick. You know what to do.

That line is the boot signal /rick-respawn reads to report whether the prior session was in Rick mode. The new session is NOT auto-activated. If the user wants to continue in Rick mode, they fire /rick-mode themselves (the skill has disable-model-invocation: true so models can't toggle personas behind the user's back). The trailer is a record, not a switch.

5. Confirm and stop

Print exactly: Saved Rick "<folder>": docs/rick/<folder>/saves/<timestamp>.md

Stop. No summary. No "anything else."

Rules

• No em dashes. Use periods, commas, or parentheses.
• No PII, credentials, API keys, or secrets in the save. Reference sensitive data by category only ("user onboarding flow," not actual user records).
• Do not dump file contents. Cite paths and line numbers, next Claude can read them.
• Do not duplicate content already captured in PRDs, plans, ADRs, issues, commits, prior saves. Reference them by path or URL.
• Do not speculate. Unknowns belong in Open threads.
• Remaining $ARGUMENTS (after the optional folder hint is stripped) describes what the next session should focus on. Open threads should prioritise that focus area.
• Do not create or update any latest.md symlink. Saves are discovered by listing docs/rick/<folder>/saves/. Parallel sessions would clobber a symlink.